Naomi Ludlow | Arts & Entertainment Editor
Netflix
It’s so easy to fall in love with the person who stands in front of you, but it’s even easier to be left in the dark about the things they have done. They stalked their way into your life, and now you can’t leave, so what now?
The dangers of stalking are presented in the Netflix series You. Beck (Elizabeth Lail) meets bookstore manager Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), who pushes the limit of getting Beck to want him as much as he wants her.
“He was doing that way too fast – like, you just met her,” HU junior Ishani Lee said. “How do you know she’s a good person?”
Sometimes we fall so hard that we don’t realize what we’re doing. Joe’s perspective shows that he believed that Beck came on to him. That she went out of her way to get to know him. Friendly gestures can be misconstrued and hard to decipher. He is even encouraged by his co-worker to Google her, and so that is where it all began.
Social media is prevalent in most lives today. We are constantly updating the world on our whereabouts and accomplishments. We let people into our everyday lives, but never realizing that we’re even letting in people, we may not want to get that close. Our generation is not excluded from stalking. Stalking may seem like an extreme term, but it’s essentially the same thing as lurking. According to the Urban Dictionary, “lurking” is defined as “spying on people online while remaining invisible.” Most of us are guilty of it.
“He did what any person would do on the internet, but he has taken it on another level,” HU junior Veronica Wells said. She advised others to “be more private with the things you do.”
Since the inception of social media, there has been a switch from predominantly private profiles to predominantly open profiles, according to an article published by StudyBreaks.com. This led to easy access of information that we all once kept hidden from the public’s eye.
In the first episode, Joe gives a monologue addressing Beck’s openness that he thought gave him permission to look into her life.
“Should’ve seen the signs, but we never do when we’re in love,” Joe said.
This line foreshadows how Beck should have viewed Joe before falling in love with him. If he is capable of stalking her for months without her knowing, what else could he do? This is the question that went through my mind while watching this show.
Each episode is jammed with a level of suspense that keeps the audience wanting to come back for more. This series has been the topic of discussion throughout social media.
“This show was crazy,” Wells said. “At one point, I saw myself rooting for Joe. I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn’t crazy.”
The audience is captured by the love story and forgets the extremes that were presented.
You will be back with Season 2 later this year. We will see what happens next with the totally obsessive-yet-charming character Joe.
The Hampton Script 